U.s. Jury Rules Against Chicago Heights

Top officials of the City of Chicago Heights set out to destroy a 160-unit apartment complex in the mid-1980s because of the race of its tenants, a federal jury ruled Thursday.

In a sweeping victory for the complex owners, the jury found that city officials falsified code violations and solicited acts of vandalism and arson to force the tenants, most of them black, from the Sunset Apartments complex on the city`s predominantly white west side.

The apartments were so heavily damaged that the city leveled the 12 buildings in 1985, leaving only a grassy field behind.

On each of six counts charged in the civil lawsuit, the jury ruled against the city, former Mayor Charles Panici, current administrator Enrico Doggett and three city Building Department employees, finding that they violated federal civil rights and other statutes.

The jury deliberated about 8 1/2 hours, a relatively short time considering the complicated legal instructions and more than two weeks of conflicting testimony.

The same jury will return to U.S. District Court Monday to decide the extent of damages, unless lawyers for the two sides reach a monetary settlement over the weekend.

James J. Casey, the attorney representing Chicago Heights and the individual defendants, disclosed in court after the jury`s verdict that he expects ``serious conversations`` concerning a settlement.

Talks can`t begin until Chicago Heights Mayor Douglas Troiani, Panici`s handpicked successor, returns from out of town this weekend, Casey said. Troiani`s participation is needed because the city is a defendant in the case. Donald Crotty and Donald Schak, owners of the now-demolished apartments, are seeking unspecified millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

Panici, Doggett and the other individual defendants are personally liable for any damages, but the city could cover the total cost of the lawsuit.

The city claimed Sunset`s demolition was justified because inspectors found the 12 buildings horribly run-down in the summer of 1984.

But in closing arguments this week, attorney Joseph J. Duffy, representing Sunset`s owners, hit hard at the fact that the city didn`t produce a single tenant to back up its claim. About a dozen former tenants, testifying for the owners, described conditions as good.

After the city posted the buildings as unfit for human habitation in fall 1984, the city encouraged and solicited acts of vandalism, looting and arson to force tenants to move, Duffy charged.

Former tenants testified that they saw Chicago Heights police officers leaving apartments shortly before fires erupted. One tenant said John C. Cripe, a city housing inspector, paid him $50 for torching a vacant apartment. Police made no arrests even though vandals removed everything of value from the apartments, from appliances and window frames to toilets and copper plumbing, in a matter of weeks, leaving the buildings a shell.

The city never notified the owners of the alleged code violations and didn`t give them a chance to repair the damage, Duffy charged.

In testimony, Cripe admitted he doctored copies of some inspection reports, and even the city`s lawyer called the conduct ``inexcusable.`` The city`s original records from the summer 1984 inspection all mysteriously disappeared, Duffy said.

Duffy also made much of the fact that Chicago Heights inspectors had routinely approved Sunset apartments for occupancy before summer 1984.

Cripe, though, contended that before the summer 1984 inspection, he and other inspectors sat in the Sunset office, drinking coffee instead of actually checking out the apartments.

Panici, mayor from 1975 to 1991, is facing another federal trial on unrelated criminal charges. He was indicted in March for allegedly extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes while mayor from numerous contractors who wanted to do business with the city. He has pleaded innocent to those charges.

Doggett remains city administrator despite pleading guilty in 1990 to federal tax-fraud charges and serving four months in a work-release program.

The others found liable by the jury were Sam Melei, retired city housing code officer, Cripe and John Hogensen, housing inspectors still on the city payroll.